Tempest Wind (Vash x F!Reader)

Sweet as Sugar

He kept you in his arms for a while longer; he laid his cards out, telling you how he grew up on the ship with Rem and his brother. He told you about the early days of the crash and how he was lost but found purpose again thanks to Luida and the rest of the crew of ship three. He told you about Plants and his relationship with them, how he can talk with them because he is a Plant too. He told you how he helped the humans settle in and keep the Plants going. After a while, you started shivering, not even sure why. It felt like your body had had too much and wanted nothing more than to break down. When Vash noticed that, he didn't let go; instead, he grabbed you tighter, standing up while keeping you in his arms, careful to keep you covered by the shirt you were wearing. He puts you down on the bed and promptly wraps you up in the blankets. When he tries to take a step away from the bed, you grab his hand, not letting him get away. Your voice sounded so weak as you asked him to stay, and it made his heart break. He sat down next to you, putting his arm around your shoulders and pulling you into his side.

He kept going with his stories, telling you what had happened while you were wandering the furthest corners of the planet. He felt relieved to get to tell you all those things, like a weight had been lifted off his chest. Despite that, he didn't tell you much about Knives, what he had done, or who he had become. He also kept his involvement in the Great Fall to himself. For the first time in his whole life, he had discovered someone who had been glad for that tragedy, and it brought forth conflicting feelings. For now, you don't need to know that it was largely thanks to him that you were freed from the horrors you had been put through on the ship. He just kept talking, recalling memories, getting closer and closer to the present day, and you just listened, not saying a word. He told you how he seemingly got his bounty and how things keep happening to him. He fills the silence with his confessions, leaving only a few things to himself.

"You're so strong." are the first words out of your mouth after a long time. "You never lost hope; you stumbled, but you always loved humans, no matter how horrible they were to you. All I've done for the last 150 years is run away, even if it was me pretending like I could die. Their gaze burns a hole in my skin and makes me want to run for the hills. Yet you have been through so much for so long, and you face them with a smile. How do you do that?"

"I loved Rem so much, and she taught me everything, including my love for people. I miss her every day, but I see her in others—in everything she loved and everything she taught me to love. I want humans to believe in me too; they could never really drive me away. I am willing to run for however long it takes and still come back."

"I want to be like you." You take the hand he has resting in his lap into your two hands. "I want to have that much love and hope in my soul, to always see the good, and to be able to fight for their acceptance. But now I'm afraid I will never get to be like that, not if I want to remember who I was and what I am. What if the horrors push me further away?"

"Do you remember anything more?" he asks instead of answering your hypotheticals.

"No," you sigh, "nothing additional. But I can still hear her... me."

"Maybe it just takes time." He pulls you even closer, and you squeeze his hand.

The room is dark, with only a faint lantern light sneaking in through the window. You feel so overwhelmingly strange. You unlocked a piece that had alluded you for so long, yet now you have many more questions. Your heart and lungs feel like they want to cry again, letting everything overflow, but your eyes and head feel dry and tired. Your body feels cold, yet it's like you are even too aware of every cell in your body. The insistent buzzing and screaming in your head doesn't stop, but it is far enough that you can focus on other things, like Vash's arm around you and his hand in yours—the warmth coming off him that you can feel in your soul. His voice sounds like a soothing lullaby.